Financial Comparison: Electra Battery Materials (NASDAQ:ELBM) & Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBSW)

Sibanye Gold (NYSE:SBSW) and Electra Battery Materials (NASDAQ:ELBM) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, institutional ownership, dividends, valuation, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Sibanye Gold and Electra Battery Materials’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sibanye Gold	N/A	N/A	N/A
Electra Battery Materials	N/A	-48.57%	-17.70%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Sibanye Gold and Electra Battery Materials, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sibanye Gold	1	1	2	1	2.60
Electra Battery Materials	1	0	1	0	2.00

Sibanye Gold presently has a consensus target price of $12.87, indicating a potential downside of 33.83%. Electra Battery Materials has a consensus target price of $2.10, indicating a potential upside of 80.26%. Given Electra Battery Materials’ higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Electra Battery Materials is more favorable than Sibanye Gold.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

34.9% of Sibanye Gold shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 32.9% of Electra Battery Materials shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Sibanye Gold shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 22.7% of Electra Battery Materials shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Sibanye Gold and Electra Battery Materials”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sibanye Gold	$6.12 billion	N/A	-$398.42 million	N/A	N/A
Electra Battery Materials	N/A	N/A	-$21.49 million	($1.27)	-0.92

Electra Battery Materials has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Sibanye Gold.

Volatility and Risk

Sibanye Gold has a beta of 0.63, indicating that its share price is 37% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Electra Battery Materials has a beta of 2.58, indicating that its share price is 158% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sibanye Gold beats Electra Battery Materials on 7 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Sibanye Gold

Sibanye Stillwater Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a precious metals mining company in South Africa, the United States, Europe, and Australia. The company produces gold; platinum group metals (PGMs), including palladium, platinum, rhodium, iridium, and ruthenium; chrome; nickel; and silver, cobalt, and copper. It owns the East Boulder and Stillwater mines located in Montana, the United States; and Columbus metallurgical complex, which smelts the material mined to produce PGM-rich filter cake, as well as conducts PGM recycling activities. The company also involved in the Kroondal, Rustenburg, Marikana, and Platinum Mile operations situated in South Africa; Mimosa located on the southern portion in Zimbabwe; the Driefontein, Kloof, Rand Refinery, and Cooke surface operations located on the West Rand of the Witwatersrand Basin; and the Beatrix situated in the southern Free State. In addition, it owns an interest in surface tailings retreatment facilities; the Marathon PGM project in Ontario, Canada; the Altar and Rio Grande copper gold projects in the Andes in north-west Argentina; the Hoedspruit; and the Burnstone and southern Free State gold projects in South Africa. Sibanye Stillwater Limited was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Weltevreden Park, South Africa.

About Electra Battery Materials

Electra Battery Materials Corporation engages in the acquisition and exploration of resource properties in the United States and Canada. It primarily explores for cobalt and silver deposits. The company's flagship project is the Iron Creek cobalt-copper project located in Lemhi County, Idaho. It also operates a cobalt refinery for producing battery materials for the electric vehicle supply chain. The company was formerly known as First Cobalt Corp. and changed its name to Electra Battery Materials Corporation in December 2021. Electra Battery Materials Corporation was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.